CELTICS 2010

marcus listed as doubtful instead of out could be a good sign

Marcus Smart doubtful for Wednesday’s game against Pistons, but that’s a small positive https://t.co/5l034R6Cju

— Souichi Terada (寺田惣一) (@SouichiTerada) February 16, 2022

New: Marcus Smart (ankle) and Rob Williams (calf) are both out tonight against Detroit but neither is expected to miss time 'long-term' according to Ime Udoka https://t.co/XbDfrEtIhG

— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) February 16, 2022

weve got a live look

Marcus Smart arriving to TD Garden ahead of Celtics vs. Pistons ☘️ pic.twitter.com/66Xx4GUJeZ

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) February 16, 2022

it's worth remembering that marcus's injuries always look 75% worse than they are. but still glad this is just a sprain.

the celtics have lost a game, to the pistons, rip

makes sense that hte streak would end to the worst team in the league

waggling eyebrows

KAT can stop by for #Celtics pics any time. Try a jersey on, see how it feels. pic.twitter.com/TqJeqOfF8k

— Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) February 21, 2022

KAT situation feels weird, like minny is starting build something but he may get that grass is greener feeling

he should get a greener feeling

it's the night after the all-star break and the red-hot boston celtics play the nets. the boston globe do not have a single preview article up on their website, interesting move

globe sports section is a shell of what it used to be

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/ always has a lot of stuff and https://theathletic.com/team/celtics/ has one or two high qual pieces a day tho you have to give them money, theres also https://celticswire.usatoday.com if you really need a fix

ty

🤙

can't endorse all of celticsblog but keith smith is great

lol i used to post in the celtics blog forum when it was new, i made them their first favicon

athletic gives great coverage imo

occurs to me that if at some point grant takes horfs starting spot that the celtics will have a starting five of all guys they drafted, wld be pretty cool

for all the talk of danny whiffing on so many picks he also hit a bunch, just not a lot of in between, nesmith and pritchard cld still do something tho

thinking theres a good chance horf gets moved with some picks in the offseason, his contract is only partially guaranteed so he cld easily be waived, i know if you trade a guy in season and hes waived you cant resign him but not sure about the offseason, wld be cool to trade him then get him back

No idea if this is plausible or even possible, but would be cool if Horf renegotiated for a lower yearly amt in exchange for years, and finished his career as a rotation player in Boston. Probably a pipe dream but in the fantasy land of my mind, both Al and the Celts learned over the past few years that they’re better off together than apart

(Yielding his starting spot part of that vision obv)

yeah theres no renegotiation in the nba

Right but with the partial guarantee, thought there might be something to work with there

idk if theyre allowed to cut and resign

Prob not , would have to clear waivers or something (which he might, at that number (depending how much is guaranteed))

Paging Larry Coon

trade makes more sense tho since its kinda their last opportunity to absorb some salary, im sure theyll be trying to find a big deal with a bunch of picks for a star but if that doesnt work out they could at least add some depth

I know I know, just love the horf vibes. And bigs who know to make the right reads. We are blessed that Rob is such a good passer in addition to the standard rim runner skill set

horf is great but hes old, unfortunately

the only realistic way he plays for them next year is that they guarantee his full salary, which i would call possible but unlikely.

could see them keeping him to try to do a deal at the deadline if they cant find what they want in the offseason

yeah. what usually complicates these things is guarantee dates because sometimes you don’t know what moves might be available at the deadline to guarantee a guy.

yeah its a risk but seems like a worthy one, also they love horf so

oh it doesn’t fully guarantee until jan 2023, nice

celtics play seven quarters of their old bad iso heavy offense vs the pistons i guess just to try to make it more fair then finally decide to play their new look team ball for the 8th quarter lol

good game by pritchard btw, got more minutes than white, guess they wanted shooting in there and figured the pistons couldnt really take advantage on the other end

pritchard is more than respectable for a 26th pick

couple articles out today trying to figure out why computers like the celtics so much

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/3/1/22955727/nba-boston-celtics-championship-odds

https://www.espn.com.au/nba/insider/insider/story/_/id/33348162/how-boston-celtics-vaulted-back-championship-contention-nba-best-defense

i kind of feel the same about them as i have all year which is that talent wise they are a very solid but not great team, obvs theyve been playing extremely well which is heartening tho they are getting some luck with opponent shooting, but the thing that imo really gives them a shot this year is right now at least no one else is looking dominant, says in one of those pieces 538 has them favored to win it all at %18 but also gives them a 30% chance of losing in the first round lol, which just about sums it up

i guess the other thing that gives me hope for a playoff run is their starting five has been killing it

In their 322 minutes together on the floor, the Celts' starters are outscoring opponents by 26.6 points per 100 possessions. Folks, that is ludicrous. No other five-man group with at least 200 minutes together is even close to that. The defending champion Milwaukee Bucks' best five-man group (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday, Bobby Portis and Grayson Allen) is at plus-13.2. The Golden State Warriors' best five-man lineup features three All-Stars (Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins), and they're a plus-8.2, not even one-third as good as what the Celtics' starters have done.

and obvs starters play more in the offs

and i will say that success from the starters isnt one of those things where theyre efforting their way to wins, playing playoff basketball in the regular season, they do have another gear particularly on defense that they only use occasionally

would be nice if they could hit a 3 now and then lol, their playoff fate could easily swing on getting hot or not from deep

yeah definitely. lately it feels like when they make their threes it’s a blowout, and when they don’t it’s a loss

they had a few outlier blowouts in a row that has really goosed their net rating or whatever the computers use to calculate these things. the improvement is real, and the defense is real, but how real the new-look ball-movement is when it gets physical in the offs will be intertsing to see play out

yeah keeping the ball movement rolling throughout the whole shot clock is going to be a huge challenge for them, its so easy to revert back to bad iso habits when the first action they try doesnt work

not having jaylen or jayson really ever initiate the offense would be good for playing good offense too

couple articles out today trying to figure out why computers like the celtics so much

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/best-net-rating-since-january-1

saved everyone some effort

and i will say that success from the starters isnt one of those things where theyre efforting their way to wins, playing playoff basketball in the regular season, they do have another gear particularly on defense that they only use occasionally

― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 1, 2022 11:14 AM (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

agree with this, they *should* be a really strong playoff team if they can stay out of their own way on the offensive end. they're probably still a guy short but the east is a total free for all as far as matchups and roster strangths/weaknesses.

Aren't Boston's plus/minus numbers skewed by 3-4 ridiculous 50+ point wins? Not that they don't count.

blowouts are good! doing a lot of blowouts is pretty much a thing only good teams do

lol grant williams (who is having a nice game) just got the ball in the corner, but for whatever reason he was at like 18 feet instead of behind the 3-point line and you could see his brain break for a second as if it was illegal to shoot from there. luckily he bounced back with a nice dribble move for a layup.

someone get this man some ryan gomes or glen davis tape